


The Fireplace is Burning Bright

by Eicartgeorge



Series: 25 Days of Stydia Christmas [14]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Allison, Alternate Universe, Christmas, Condoms, Dirty Santa, F/M, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 17:09:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13012341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eicartgeorge/pseuds/Eicartgeorge
Summary: Lydia and Stiles have been keeping their new relationship a secret, but secrets may be revealed when the pack goes away for the weekend to celebrate the holidays.Title comes from "That's Christmas to Me"





	The Fireplace is Burning Bright

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came from this prompt by Lizzy2: "I think seeing the pack play Dirty Santa could be potentially VERY funny, depending on where the story goes. Especially if the “gifts” were all intentionally terrible presents because the price limit was set so low."

 

Stiles and Lydia couldn't tell you how it happened. How they became a couple.

 

What they could tell you is how they weren't telling anyone.

 

Their friends had been so invested in their will they/won't they saga that when they finally did decide to be together, they wanted some time where it was just them that knew instead of telling all of their friends about it immediately.

 

Granted, that was a hard thing for Stiles to do, but he _really_ liked Lydia (maybe he even loved her-but it was too soon in their relationship to tell her that) and it was something she really wanted.

 

They talked about giving it two weeks before telling anyone, but they both kind of enjoyed the thrill of sneaking around... so they put it off.

 

Then a month went by and then two. Then they were too afraid of how their friends would react after keeping such a huge secret from them for so long. The only person that knew was Stiles's dad (and that was an unfortunate accident).

 

They'd been together for nearly three and a half months when the pack decided they were all going to go a cabin to celebrate Christmas.

 

Stiles and Lydia decided that they would tell their friends on this trip. This wouldn't be the first time the two of them had made plans to tell their friends, but hopefully it would finally get done, because the sneaking around was getting less fun and staying away from each other was getting harder.

 

Allison had talked her father into letting them borrow his SUV to get everybody and their things up the mountain and to the cabin, (Stiles's jeep would never make it), and her boyfriend, Isaac, was entrusted with driving them all.

 

In retrospect, they would see this was not a very good idea.

 

* * *

 

 

With Isaac and Allison up front, the rest of the pack squeezed into the back.

 

It was moments like these that Lydia and Stiles looked forward to, where they could be next to each other and touch, and it not look like something more than everyone else thought it should be.

 

Stiles slid in first and Lydia slid in after him.

 

“Hey, Lydia, can I sit there?” Scott asked.

 

“No!” Stiles said quickly, and Lydia whipped her head around to him. “Uhh I mean... why can't you sit next to Lydia?”

 

“Well, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

 

“But...” Stiles was trying not to whine. And even if he did, he hoped his best friend would think that it was just because he'd liked Lydia for so long, and not that he just wanted to hold his girlfriend's hand without everyone seeing it.

 

“What if we traded spots?” Lydia asked Stiles, giving him a look. “I want to be next to the window anyway.”

 

Stiles sighed. “Yeah, okay.”

 

Lydia stood so Stiles could slide over and her hand grazed his inner thigh as she sat back down. One look at her smirk out of the corner of his eye told him it wasn't an accident.

 

Kira, Liam, and Malia sat in the next row with Malia directly behind Scott, her boyfriend. Malia wasn't much for PDA.

 

With all of their things loaded into the back, they took off.

 

They hadn't been driving that long before Stiles let his left hand fall onto Lydia's right, his larger hand engulfing her smaller one. He kept glancing at Allison to see if she would notice, but even if she did, they were so crammed in there, it could have been an accident that neither one pulled away from.

 

Before long, Lydia, who always fell asleep on long car rides, had her head against the window and her eyes closed.

 

“Good, she's finally asleep,” Scott whispered.

 

“What?” Stiles asked as he turned back to his friend.

 

“Lydia. That's why I wanted to sit next to you. I wanted to talk to you about her.”

 

“What about her?”

 

“Dude, I think she likes you.”

 

Stiles made a choking noise in the back of his throat as he gasped and tried not to laugh at the same time. He couldn't think of what to say. Everything that was coming to mind was a sarcastic remark, or an admission of guilt, neither of which would work at the moment for different reasons.

 

“No...” He said it slowly and in the least sarcastic way possible. “Really?”

 

“I think so... I've been watching her, and I catch her staring at you when you're not looking...and her heartbeat speeds up a little when you walk into a room.”

 

Stiles couldn't stop the smile that appeared on his face. “Really?” he asked again.

 

“Yeah,” Scott nodded. “I think you should say something to her on this trip.”

 

“Nooo.” Stiles shook his head. “I don't think so.”

 

“Come on! I swear if you ask her out she'll say 'yes'.”

 

Stiles was about to reply when Lydia readjusted and her head fell onto his shoulder. Scott raised his eyebrows and Stiles just sighed. “Scott, I just...” It was times like these that Stiles just wanted to tell his friend the truth, but he also wanted his girlfriend to be conscious for the reveal as well. “I don't think it's a good idea. Can we please just drop it?”

 

Scott sighed. “Fine.”

 

“”Hey, it's snowing!” Allison pointed out as she saw the white dust begin to collect on the windshield. “Isaac, are you still okay driving?”

 

“Yeah, I got this!”

 

Stiles eventually dozed off, his head resting atop his girlfriend's. He woke up when Lydia did almost an hour later.

 

It was still snowing, and in fact the further they made it up the mountain the worse the snow got until Isaac could barely see in front of him.

 

When they finally got to the cabin, the pack climbed out of the SUV. The snow was coming down so hard, they decided to come back later for their bags.

 

“Oh, this is nice and cozy,” Allison cooed when she walked in.

 

“Someone should make a fire,” Lydia suggested as she walked over to the fire place.

 

“I’ll do it,” Stiles volunteered.

 

“Really?” Lydia lowered her voice, and asked flirtatiously.

 

“Yes, really,” he whispered back. “I used to go camping all the time with my dad.”

 

“Are you gonna…chop some wood?”

 

Stiles bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from laughing. “Shut up,” he mumbled.

 

Lydia smiled. “Your hair is doing something weird,” she told him and ran a hand through Stiles’s hair to fix it. Neither of them realized the action until it was over. Lydia quickly jerked her hand away and the two of them shared a look before Lydia walked away.

 

“I’m going to see if there’s any firewood already chopped outside,” Stiles announced.

 

“I’ll come with you!” Scott told him and Stiles inwardly groaned. “Okay, please tell me you saw that,” Scott said quietly as they both neared the door.

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Stiles shook his head.

 

They walked outside and Scott continued talking.

 

“How could you not have noticed that?!”

 

“Scott-“

 

“No, you can’t seriously tell me that you, Mr. I’ve-been-in-love-with-Lydia-Martin-Since-Third-Grade-“

 

“Scott-“

 

“-And-read-into-everything-she-does didn’t notice that.”

 

“Scott!”

 

“What?”

 

“Where’s the car?”

 

* * *

 

“Well,” Allison began as she hung up. “They said they would get back to us in the morning. The storm's too bad to make it up here right now.”

 

“I can't believe you forgot to put the fucking emergency brake on.” Stiles grumbled as he chucked wood into the fireplace.

 

“Stiles,” Lydia said softly and put a calming hand on his shoulder.

 

Stiles took a deep breath, but he could feel Scott's eyes on them. He shrugged her hand off of his shoulder before shooting her an apologetic glance.

 

He could tell she understood why he did it, but that she was still hurt by the action- and that made him even more furious at the werewolf.

 

“Your dad's going to kill me.” Isaac groaned.

 

“You won't have to worry about Allison's dad if we can't keep Stiles away from you,” Liam only half-joked.

 

“We literally have nothing to do now!” Kira complained. “This was supposed to be a low-tech weekend anyway, but the books and everything are all in the luggage.”

 

“Which,” Malia began, “for the record, is in the car which is at the bottom of the cliff.”

 

“We don't know _where_ the car is,” Scott tried to be the voice of reason. “It may just be in the woods.”

 

“Well,” Allison began as she put her arms around Isaac's neck. “I can think of _something_ we could do.”

 

Isaac began to smile before realization hit and he hung his head. “Shit.”

 

“What now?” Stiles stood up, and everyone subconsciously took a step toward Isaac.

 

“It's nothing.” Isaac shook his head. “I just...I packed the condoms in my bag.”

 

Allison sighed and looked up, “Not that I _need_ sex right this minute, but does _any_ body have condoms with them?”

 

They all shook their heads 'no' except for Liam. “I've got one in my wallet.”

 

“Oh yeah?” Stiles asked, “And how long has it been there?”

 

Liam shrugged. “I don't know.”

 

“Yeah,” Stiles shook his head, and looked back at Isaac. “You're not getting laid tonight.”

 

“Well neither are you,” Isaac rolled his eyes. “It's not like there's anyone here who'd do it with you anyway.”

 

Stiles narrowed his eyes and clenched his fist, knuckles cracking. Lydia cleared her throat, catching Stiles's attention. When he caught her glance, she was giving him a look that said 'Calm down'.

 

“Do we even know if there's food here?” Kira asked.

 

Malia shrugged, “I've got marshmallows in my purse.” She pointed to her purse sitting next to the door.

 

“I'm not sure what the more important question is here,” Lydia started. “How are we all supposed to survive on a bag marshmallows, or..why do you have marshmallows in your purse to begin with?”

 

Malia shrugged. “I get hungry.”

 

“Well,” Scott began. “We've got a fire going, if we don't have anything else, I guess one of us could go catch a couple of rabbits.”

 

“Oh, no way.” Lydia shook her head adamantly. “I am _not_ eating Thumper.”

 

* * *

 

They finally checked the pantry and found several non-perishable items which, by Lydia's calculation, could last them the entire weekend if they rationed everything properly. They were hopeful that they would be able to get supplies before then.

 

They all sat in the living room around the fireplace. Allison was in Isaac's lap on a chair, Malia and Scott were snuggled up on the love seat, and Stiles and Lydia sat on opposite sides of the couch with Liam and Kira between them.

 

“I've got an idea!” Allison said suddenly.

 

“If you suggest going around the room and saying what we're thankful for, so help me God.” Stiles groaned.

 

“Well that's _not_ what I was going to say. I was going to say we should play Dirty Santa!”

 

She was met with blank stares from all of her friends.

 

“Okay, Allison,” Malia said, sitting forward. “We don't have anything, because your boyfriend lost our luggage.”

 

“No, I know! That's what will make it so fun! We'll go exploring, and everybody will have to find something around here to be their gift.”

 

They all looked at each other, trying to decide if they liked the idea or not.

 

“Come on!” Allison begged.

 

“I'm in,” Lydia finally said.

 

“Yeah, why not.” Liam shrugged and soon everyone had agreed.

 

* * *

 

The pack had split up to search the cabin and Stiles, Lydia, and Liam had ended up in the kitchen searching through drawers and cabinets. When Liam left, Lydia was about to follow him, but Stiles grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

 

“Hey,” he whispered, “I wanted to talk to you. I'm sorry about earlier.”

 

“No...no...I get it.”

 

“Yeah... but you didn't hear Scott.”

 

“What did Scott say?”

 

“On the way here he was trying to convince me to make a move, because he could tell you liked me.”

 

“Oh!”

 

“Oh?”

 

“Yeah, this could be good! We'll just pretend you finally grew some balls.”

 

“Hey! I grew balls 3 months ago.” Lydia raised her eyebrow. “I mean... you know what I mean!” Lydia giggled and Stiles sighed. “I don't want to pretend it just happened. I want to tell everyone the truth.”

 

“We will. I don't want to lie to them anymore either. We just have to figure out the right time.”

 

Stiles sighed as he tucked her hair behind her ear, “God, I love you.”

 

Lydia's eyes widened and she straightened up. “What did you just say?”

 

“What?” Stiles paled when he realized what had slipped out of his mouth. “I...I.... I don't....”

 

“Are you guys finding anything good in here?” Kira asked as she walked in.

 

“Nope,” Stiles began as he quickly walked away. “Nothing to see here.”

 

* * *

 

When everyone had found an item and some sort of wrapping for it, they drew names of the order in which everyone would go. Allison laid out the rules (they would steal presents as they went, and each present could only be stolen 3 times before it was 'dead') and then she opened the first present that was wrapped in old newspaper.

 

“A roll of toilet paper! This is actually a really good gift. Especially since somebody used toilet paper to wrap their present,” she said, pointing out the gift in question.

 

Next it was Liam's turn, and he chose to open a new present. “It's... two tampons...” He made a face and sat back slowly.

 

It was Stiles's turn after that, and when he saw what it was, he almost didn't want to show it to anyone.

 

“A box of condoms?!” Allison exclaimed. “Who found a box of condoms?”

 

“Wait, is there even anything inside?” Scott asked.

 

Stiles peeked inside the box and nodded, “Yeah, I mean...there's maybe only one or two missing.”

 

“Well, my turn,” Isaac said then snatched the box from Stiles's hands. “It's not like you have any use for them anyway.”

 

“Well, Stiles, you get to go again.” Allison told him. “But you can't steal back the present that was just stolen.”

 

“Not that he'd need to,” Isaac mumbled, and Stiles stole a glance at Lydia before taking a deep breath and walking up to grab another present that had been put inside a pillowcase.

 

“Ooh a bottle of bourbon.” Allison smiled. She was enjoying this way too much. Either that, or she was just glad that people had actually found good presents.

 

“I guess it's my turn. Sorry not sorry, Isaac,” Malia said and took the condoms away.

 

“Damn it,” Isaac muttered, before looking at the gifts that were already unwrapped, and deciding he'd be better off getting something from under the mantle. He sighed when he opened a bar of soap.

 

Scott was next and with no need for the condoms since his girlfriend was currently in possession of them, and no need for bourbon since he wouldn't be able to benefit from it, he went to open a new present.

 

“It's a hand-drawn card that says Merry Christmas.” Scott looked up at his youngest beta. “Liam, is this your hand-writing?” Liam shrugged. “Well, at least you put some effort into it.”

 

“Kira?” Allison turned to the kitsune.

 

Kira looked toward the two unopened presents and then around the room. Finally, she stood up and took the tampons from Liam.

 

“Oh thank God.” Liam sighed.

 

Kira shrugged. “I figured I'd be nice.”

 

Liam grabbed one of the unopened presents and pulled out a pine cone. “You know...anything is better than tampons.”

 

“Alright, Lydia,” Scott addressed the banshee. “You're up. You're the only one that hasn't gone.”

 

Lydia looked around the room, then her eyes locked on Stiles. She stood up and walked slowly over to him.

 

“Are you coming to steal my bourbon?” he asked as he held the bottle up for her.

 

She shook her head. “No.”

 

He lowered the bottle slowly, “Then what are you doing?”

 

“I'm coming over here,” she put her arms around his neck and sat on his lap (Stiles couldn't help but laugh at his friends' reactions), “ to tell you I'm stealing Malia's present, and you need to bring the bourbon, because my boyfriend just told me he loves me.... and I love you too.”

 

“Really?” he asked softly as he smiled.

 

“Yeah,” she smiled and nodded, before kissing him (rather intensely). When she pulled away, she stood up, grabbed Stiles's hand, then took the box of condoms from Malia's.

 

“The bourbon is still technically in play!” Allison called as they headed down the hall.

 

“Not anymore!” Stiles called back.

 

“Wait...” Isaac said after a moment. “Did I miss something?”

 

* * *

 

“I wonder who found the condoms anyway,” Stiles thought aloud as they made it back to the bedroom.

 

“Oh, I did.” Lydia assured him.

 

“Wait... you did?”

 

“Yeah, I figured the odds were good that I'd end up with it.” She shrugged.

 

“But what if it hadn't worked out? What if Scott had taken them just to stop the play on it?”

 

“Oh, sweetie,” Lydia began as she reached into her back pocket. “You underestimate me.” She pulled out three condoms. “The box wasn't opened when I found it.”

 

Stiles shook his head. “God....I really do love you.”

 

“And I really do love you too.”

  

* * *

“He's going to murder me,” Isaac surmised as they drove back down the mountain. “Like...cut me into tiny pieces then disperse my body all over the world kind of murder.”

 

“It was nice knowing you,” Liam told the older beta.

 

The entire pack was bundled up in their jackets and scarves because all of the windows were broken.

 

Isaac rolled his eyes. “I'm surprised Stilinski isn't enjoying this more.”

 

“Um... He's enjoying something else.” Kira mumbled. It was then that Isaac realized that there were four people on the first row of seats, and that Kira had just sat herself on the edge. In the back, Lydia and Stiles were in the middle of, what could only be described as, a tongue-wrestling competition.

 

Isaac shook his head. “I mean...good for him, I guess?”

 

“You're just jealous,” Malia began, “because you spent the whole first day making jokes about how he wasn't going to get laid on the trip, and in the end..he was the only one that did.”

 

“You know,” Scott started, “maybe you don't have to tell Mr. Argent about the car. I'm sure Stiles and Lydia could give you a few pointers on keeping major secrets.”

 

Allison chuckled as she looked in the back, “Hey, Scott... I'm pretty sure they're giving you a few pointers right now.”

 

He turned his head to see the couple flipping him off while continuing their make-out session.

 

“Huh,” the alpha shrugged, “I guess they can hear me.”

 

"And we're ignoring you," Stiles tore his lips away from his girlfriend long enough to tell Scott.

 

"Guys," Allison began, "if you defile my father's car...well nevermind. You can't defile it anymore than Isaac already did."

 

Isaac gave a sideways glance to his girlfriend as all of his friends laughed. If he survived to see next Christmas, he would never live this down.


End file.
